Music Quotes by Louis Armstrong

[Bebop is] Chinese music.

— Louis Armstrong

Never play a thing the same way twice.

— Louis Armstrong

Never play anything the same way twice.

— Louis Armstrong

You blows who you is.

— Louis Armstrong

There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.

— Louis Armstrong

I don't need words. It's all in the phrasing.

— Louis Armstrong

My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.

— Louis Armstrong

“If you have to ask what jazz is you will never know." Louis Armstrong”

— Louis Armstrong

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician.

— Louis Armstrong

If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.

— Louis Armstrong

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.

— Louis Armstrong

Music is either good or bad, and it's got to be learned. You got to have balance.

— Louis Armstrong

There's only two ways to sum up music; either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it,…

— Louis Armstrong

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And…

— Louis Armstrong

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back…

— Louis Armstrong

I had a chance to play with the best musicians that were coming through because I was pretty good myself or else…

— Louis Armstrong

All them weird chords which don't mean a thing...you got no melody to remember, and no beat to dance to

— Louis Armstrong

It's America's classical music ... this becomes our tradition ... the bottom line of any country in the world is what did…

— Louis Armstrong

When I go to the Gate, I'll play a duet with Gabriel. Yeah, we'll play 'Sleepy Time Down South' and 'Hello, Dolly!.'…

— Louis Armstrong

You see, pops, that's the kind of talk that's ruining the music. Everyone's trying to do something new, no one trying to…

— Louis Armstrong

My life has always been my music, it's always come first, but the music ain't worth nothing if you can't lay it…

— Louis Armstrong

A lot of the musicians asked me if when I hit my high-Cs on the records I had a clarinet take the…

— Louis Armstrong

Musicians in my day had nicknames. My name was "Satchel Mouth," like a doctor's satchel. When I went to England this fellow…

— Louis Armstrong

Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him.

— Louis Armstrong

If ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out.

— Louis Armstrong

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

— Louis Armstrong

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them.

— Louis Armstrong

If it hadn't been for Jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll.

— Louis Armstrong

Not too slow, not too fast. Kind of like half-fast.

— Louis Armstrong

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

— Louis Armstrong